News Microsoft allegedly poised to buy Mojang

Doesn't make sense, why spend 2 billion on something that only makes 100m in a year?

i think its more of the acquisition of mojang itself that's valuable to them. probably a intent to make kids sign up a microsoft account on their ipads, and utilise its use with cloud game play.

 

Just because it only makes 100m a year now, doesn't mean it's not worth 2 billion.
Think monetizing add-ons, licensing of merchandise, spin-offs, TAX reasons, in game purchases.

 

Preorder Minecraft 2016 now for only $99.99, includes 5% rebate on $149.99 Season Pass for Launch Day DLC

 

XBox One exclusive for Minecraft 2 to (try to) sell Xbox units...

 

I really hope this isn't real. I can't see why Mojang would do this. Microsoft surely can't offer anything to them. Amazon buying Twitch sort of made sense for both parties, this wouldn't make sense for either. Then again, what do I know.

 

$2bn.
That's quite a lot of money. Apparently it was Notch who approached Microsoft (making mockery of his claims that he'd never sell out for money) for the deal in the first place. I find it slightly ludicrous as Mojang have made precisely one game to date with two in the works, with no guarantee they'll have the popularity of Minecraft. It seems Microsoft are following their usual strategy of throwing money at a problem - but is Mojang actually a good buy for $2bn?

 

Everyone is corrupt, it is just the price that varies.

 

Exactly. They just came along with an offer big enough that he no longer cared.

 

Notch' behavioural history suggests a personality that is slightly, well, volatile. One moment he is in this place, the next he's in another.

As for Microsoft: because it has truck loads of money, it is in the unique position to be able to buy some goodwill with the geek crowd. It should have bought Winamp, and then released it as an open source player linked to Shoutcast radio and the XBox Music store. Think of it as XBox Music-hack-it-your-way edition for geeks. Emphasis on a mind-blowing visualiser plug-in.

If it buys Minecraft, it should release it as open source and encourage mods, mods, mods. And release it on Windows RT already.

 

Yeah, but that won't happen. They'll take Mojang in house as a developer for the XBone and try and come up with the "next Minecraft" that will be a console exclusive. Same thing happened to Bungie with Halo, Rare with...****, Kinect Sports. It'll kill Mojang.

 

Yep. No way in hell will the go open source.

 

True, true... Idiots are the reason why we can't have nice things.

 

...now that's telling. Somebody at Microsoft has obviously worked out Twitter.

 

If this is true then it's very worrying indeed for the future of Minecraft - as if the recent bukkit/craftbukkit/DMCA saga wasn't enough.

Minecraft has been somewhat unique in its constant development; new features keep being added and the gameplay keeps getting expanded, and no one has ever been charged a penny for an update or "DLC". If the acquisition is true then I can't see Microsoft wanting to continue with that quite frankly, it's practically crying out for monetisation. "Hey, want a new cape? Only $1.99 on the Microsoft WhateverStore! New character skins? Here you go, starting at $2.99! Texture packs? Don't talk to me about texture packs - we got 'em all, starting at $8.99!" and so on. Edit: I know stuff like that is already charged for on consoles, but there's a good chance they'd do it on PC too. Either way you get my point: I can't see gameplay updates staying free forever if this happens.

Also, I can't see Microsoft being quite so open to the modding community. The Minecraft mods available are mind-boggling and change the game in such vast ways that sometimes it's almost impossible to recognise it as Minecraft.

Dear Mojang, we'll put up with Notch being the."character".that he is as long as you please don't do this .

 

Notch hasn't been the same since that new space game thing he was working when t*ts up.

 

Maybe he was just tired and wanted to retire after working so hard?

 

I'd say what my fans wanted to hear to keep them sweet and giving me their money but if someone then actually offered me $2 Billion...It's yours, give me the money, I live in the real world and with $2 Billion I wouldn't give a toss if everyone in the virtual world of Minecraft hated me